An alternate conversation
by SaidbhinLuch
Summary: Ever wonder why Jack decided to bring Sam and Daniel on the mission to Chulak in the alternate timeline? Well maybe it was Sam who managed to convince him... Just a little one shot set in Moebius part two. Geek! Sam centric. Apologies for the terrible title


_**Anything you recognize is alas not mine otherwise A) Stargate Atlantis and SG-1 would still be on and B) We would've gotten proper and complete closure to the Sam/Jack relationship!**_

* * *

Sam sighed as she stared down at the huge metallic gray ring, _Stargate,_ she reminded herself as she pushed her glasses back up her nose. She spied McKay and moved back from the window slightly so that he wouldn't see her. Luckily for her, lacking is decent social skills and being any way significant, allowed her the useful gift, for the first time ever, of being able to hide with almost exceptional ease.

Pathetic, really, if she cared to think about, which she mostly tried not to. It was only recently that she actually felt like she **could **be someone, when she saw the other version of herself, the Air force Colonel, talking confidently about her life, her science and what they had to do in their current situation, in order to fix things.

Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter.

Head of an elite team.

Renowned scientist.

Respected.

Brave.

Determined.

Successful.

In other words everything she was not. How could things be so different for her in this timeline? Where had she; the mousy, shy, reclusive woman gone wrong? This woman was the epitome of everything Sam had thought she wanted and let slip away.

Was it when she listened to her father and not applied to the academy?

Was it when she eavesdropped on her mother talking to her friend about how difficult life was being associated with the Air Force?

Was it after the confidence shredding relationship with Jonas Hanson?

She sighed yet again, logically she knew that she could theorize about this until kingdom come and she would never know. Sam ran a hand through her hair and plonked herself down none to gracefully on the briefing table.

If her father could see her now, disrespecting the precious centre of command. She laughed quietly to herself, their relationship being stormy at best. Jacob being a military man had no idea how to deal with the quiet genius with an extraordinary gift for physics. He was relatively proud of her, pride in her brilliance and the relatively due to being nothing other than a proof reader for other peoples work.

How had she managed to get a degree, masters and a doctorate again?

Sam sighed once again, staring out at the magnificent piece of technology a few floors below, one they were wary about letting her near. Yeah, because Sam Carter in this timeline was such a threat. She laughed once again.

'Wha'cha laughing at?' a voice suddenly pierced through her rather depressing train of thought. She bolted off the table spinning around facing the source of the unexpected voice. Jack O'Neill. Who was currently staring at her with a look she couldn't quite decipher.

'God don't DO that, please!' Sam exclaimed holding a rather shaky hand to her chest. He cocked his head out at her, quirking an eyebrow at her, before strolling over to the window and peering down.

'So this is the thing you and the other geek wanted me to see. Hm.' Oh no, judging by the way he said geek, he had issues with those like her.

Well after five minutes with McKay, she didn't blame him really.

'Daniel.' She muttered quietly observing him carefully. First of all his wardrobe was as bad as hers, which was saying something. Massive trousers which had to be at least a size to big and a flannel shirt at least two sizes too big and a tatty coat tossed over it. His hair wasn't quite as silver as his counterpart and he seemed to not to be too dissimilar but there was something she couldn't quite place. She was of course, blatantly ignoring how attractive he actually was.

'Sorry? You say something there Doctor...?' He trailed off looking slightly sheepish as he had clearly forgotten her name already.

Not that Sam wasn't already not used to that. Even her supervisor of six years forgot who she was on a weekly basis.

Samantha Carter in a nutshell, forgettable at best.

'Carter. Sam Carter. The other 'geek' as you put it, is Daniel Jackson.' This is where the newly reactivated Colonel actually turned to look at her, smirking slightly. His insanely dark eyes dancing with mirth.

Oooooooh boy.

Sam looked at him warily, a look like that aimed at a woman like her made absolutely no sense. A wishy washy, feeble, timid scientist and a man like him.

Holy Hannah.

'Touch a nerve there did I Doctor Sam Carter?'

'It's nothing I'm not used to. Believe me.' She sighed again, making a mental note to try to cut down on that. Oh who was she kidding? Not even herself it seems.

'Ah.'

Ahhhh King of the monosyllabic.

'Hm'

Sam was fine with monosyllabic, preferred it usually in conversation really, less chance of her making a complete fool out of herself. Though as he continued to stare at her with piercing eyes, she shrank back, to which he responded with twitch the aforementioned eyebrow. Luckily for her, he didn't feel the need to comment.

'Do me a favour Doc would ya? Explain this wormhole thing to me?'

'I'm sorry?' This was hardly where she was expecting this conversation to go. Not that she was expecting a conversation with the apparently infamous Jack O'Neill from what she had overheard the SF's talking about.

'That McCoy guy-' Sam laughed silently at his mishap, wishing that she had to guts to say that to his face herself. 'Did go through it, but as you can tell I'm not a technobabble sort of guy. Could you dumb it down for me?'

'Ammmmm.' Sam felt more than a little flummoxed, he was asking her of all people?

'I mean why is it called a wormhole? Why not the inter-galactic bridge or something?'

Of all the questions to ask...

'Well it's actually a joke of sorts...'

'Oh a joke! I like jokes; I'm a humour sorta guy. But I'm guessing that this isn't really a ha-ha sort of thing now is it?'

'Depends on your sense of humour, I suppose. And when I said joke I guess I meant more of a metaphor. Sorry. 'Way to go Sam, well done. There's a winner for you right now!

'So it's a metaphorical worm? I still don't get it...' He was scratching the back of his head looking slightly bashful.

'Well imagine the galaxy is an apple. The gates burrow a way through the apple like a worm, crossing from one side to the other instead of going around the outside.'

'Okay.' His brow furrows and is clearly thinking about this. Most Air Force Colonels she had met never really bothered to think when she was around. Well not about scientific things at the very least. She took a steadying breath before continuing.

'Now, of course, the diameter of the apple is just a two- dimensional representation of space-time and well, the hole isn't a hole per se, but an interdimensional conduit .Colonel?' She stopped as she saw the completely lost look on her face. She closed her eyes, well done you've lost him Sam. Bravo. She thought gloomily.

'I'll be okay Doc. This is just way over my head. Thanks that actually made sense. In a way.' He then shoved his hands deep into his pockets and rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet.

'Sooooooo fixing the timeline is the big goal here?'He turned to look at her again and she couldn't help but wish he'd stop. She couldn't handle people like him, oh who was she fooling men like him.

'Well for some of us. Well just me and Daniel I guess, actually.' Sam sat back down on the briefing table, abeit a lot more carefully this time and staring past him at the Stargate.

'Daniel and I.' He corrected quietly.

'Oh. Sorry.' To which he turned to look at me once again, while Sam stared resolutely out the window refusing to look at him.

'Why do you want to fix the timeline?'

'Why? I mean did you see the tape? This is-'

'No. _Why_ do _you_ want to fix the timeline so badly you'll sacrifice your hard earned frequent flyer miles to attempt to convince a complete stranger to help you?' He cut across her and stared at her so pointedly that she couldn't help but look back at him, regretting it almost immediately.

'Have you ever looked at yourself and wonder where everything went wrong? Wanted to be something significant? Do something of importance?'

Again the Colonel gazes at her with an indecipherable look. Sam got up and walked over the to the window and looked down at the device without really seeing it.

'When I saw _her _on the tape, I just knew that this is all wrong, I was supposed to be something, _someone_ who meant _something_ to someone. She helped save the world, changed how her world looked at physics and actually DID something with her life. Why wouldn't I want that? Why wouldn't I want to be that and more?'

She glanced up at his reflection in the window and saw that once again he was looking at her with an odd expression this one however, has something she recognized. Sadness and grief.

God what had happened to this man?

'Oh Doctor Carter, I was wondering when I'd see you again! You seemed to disappear on me earlier. Oh what are you doing here?' Sam shut her eyes slowly at hearing McKay's voice coming up from the stairs leading to the control room. She immediately started praying someone would shoot her... or better yet, him.

'The good Doctor here was explaining the wormhole stuff to me, in an actual language I could understand. Clearly she understands it more then you otherwise I would've gotten it earlier.'

Sam turned to look at the Colonel in amazement, him standing up for her. What was the world coming to?

'Excuse me Colonel?' McKay himself seemed to be as amazed as she was by the Colonels quick jump to her defence.

'Wasn't that Einstein's' thing McCoy? If you can't explain something simply, then you don't know it well enough?'

To say that McKay was flabbergasted was a HUGE understatement. Sam had never seen anyone actually do a goldfish impression in front of her. McKay didn't even correct the Colonel before scurrying off.

'Well then, that got rid of him.' The Colonel smirked at the retreating form of the irritating scientist.

'Thank goodness.' Sam muttered under her breath, but unfortunately the Colonel heard her and chuckled lightly.

'Not a fan, I take it?'

'Given I had to spend half the day hiding from him, I'm going to go with no.'

'Ouch. Well anyways Doc it's been nice chatting with you, see you at the morning briefing. Eight hundred hours.' He waved striding out the door.

Wait. Morning briefing?

'I-I—you what?' She stammered none too gracefully stepping after him.

'You heard me. You and Jackson, you're on the team. Night Doc.' Sam ran to the door and watched him leave in a stunned fashion.

'Thank you!' She finally managed to call after him, beaming, he turned back and Sam caught a ghost of a smile flitter across his face.

'Good night Colonel.' She called once again as he walked away from her before staring out at the gate with the smallest flicker of hope.

Maybe, just maybe things could get better.


End file.
